Gaia DR4 content - Gaia

Gaia Data Release 4 (Gaia DR4)

The original Gaia DR4 data will become available from the Gaia ESA Archive. The expected content of Gaia DR4, pending certain processing and validation activities, is described here and summarised in the below table.

Significant changes compared to previous Gaia data releases

Gaia DR4 is different from previous data releases in several ways:

Number and data volume of tables and other products

Gaia DR4 will contain a large number and diversity of data products. Lower-level data such as the individual observations underlying the source-level catalogue parameters will be released as well. Consequently, the total data volume of Gaia DR4 is approximately 400 TB with the largest fraction associated to the lower-level (epoch) products. In comparison, the total data volume of Gaia DR3 is 10 TB.

Content of the main source catalogues

In contrast to previous releases, data will be published for all processed sources, which amount to about 2.8 billion sources in total.

The gaia_source table in Gaia DR4 contains a high-quality subset of about 2 billion of these sources that are considered to have both high-quality astrometry and photometry. With respect to previous data releases, the parameters in this table are now consolidated from several different processing modules such that the best-suited model has been applied for a given source (e.g., a binary-star model instead of the default single-star model as was the case in Gaia DR3).

The gaia_source table in Gaia DR4 is complemented by the following four tables that contain the results from the dedicated processing pipelines for all sources:

all_source_astrometry: Results for all sources from the core astrometry pipeline
all_source_photometry: Results for all sources from the core photometry pipeline
all_source_rvs: Results for all sources from the core spectroscopy pipeline
all_source_flags: Compiles a selection of flags for each source published in the Gaia catalogue.
sso_source: Results for solar system objects (SSO). These sources follow a dedicated processing path and do not appear in gaia_source.

Summary of expected tables in the Gaia DR4 archive

The columns of the table below have the following meaning:

Id: Identifier that will eventually map to the corresponding section in the data model documentation.
Data model chapter: Indicates the name of the data model chapter. The Gaia DR4 draft data model will be published in advance of the data release.
Gaia Archive Table Name: Indicates the table name in the Gaia ESA Archive.
Description: Description of the data set.
Category: Helps to distinguish between the different data sets.
New in DR4: Inidcates if the type of data was already published with Gaia DR3 or not. All data published with Gaia DR4 will be new, but some data product types have not been published before. These are indicated with "NEW". "NEW in Archive" marks products that were published elsewhere, e.g., on Cosmos, in previous releases.
Data level: Indicative data level of the product. Level 1 (DL1) corresponds to image data, i.e., CCD pixel/sample values. Level 2 (DL2) corresponds to epoch data, i.e., time-resolved processing results usually per CCD transit. Level 3 (DL3) corresponds to source-level data with summary results per celestial source. Level 4 (DL4) corresponds to derived quantities that incorporate astrophysical models and priors.
Label: Helps to distinguish between the different data sets.
Access: Identifies the location and protocol with which the data are served:
- TAP: Table Access Protocol in the archive
- DataLink: DataLink protocol in the archive
Size: Indicates the total number of rows in a table (TAP) or records in a DataLink product. Data qualifiers such as flags are available for selecting suitable data subsets. Details depend on the product and available fields are described in the draft datamodel available here.
Volume: Total data volume of the respective product.

The content of this table is under development and changes can be expected. Last update: 28 June 2026.

Id	Data model chapter / GACS section	Gaia Archive Table Name	Description	Category	New in DR4	Data level	Label	Access	Size	Volume
01.01	Gaia Data Release 4	gaia_source	Sources considered to have both high-quality astrometry and high-quality photometry. In contrast to previous data releases, the parameters in this table are consolidated from several different processing modules.	Main		DL3	General	TAP	2,000,033,276	586 GB
01.02	Gaia Data Release 4	spurious_signal	This table contains a variety of statistics and models which can help in the identification of scan-angle related (spurious) signals.	Main	NEW in Archive	DL3	General	TAP	1,984,198,752	182 GB
02.01	All-source	all_source_astrometry	Astrometric parameters obtained for nearly all sources. The sole exceptions are the sources only recognized in the special crowded-fields processing (see the crowded field source and related tables), and the sources only recognized in the Source Environment Analysis (SEApipe).	Main	NEW	DL3	Astrometry	TAP	2,793,009,568	610 GB
02.02	All-source	all_source_flags	Compiles a selection of flags of interest for each source published in the Gaia catalogue.	Main	NEW	DL3	Classification	TAP	2,793,009,568	44 GB
02.03	All-source	all_source_match	Global cross-match table compiling all source_id associations between those in all_source_astrometry, gaia_source_environment, and crowded_field_source.	Main	NEW	DL3	CrossMatch	TAP	219,570,989	3.0 GB
02.04	All-source	all_source_photometry	Photometric parameters in the G and, where applicable, BP and/or RP band obtained for nearly all sources except those in crowded_field_source and gaia_source_environment.	Main	NEW	DL3	Photometry	TAP	2,793,009,568	755 GB
02.05	All-source	all_source_rvs	Parameters such as radial velocities, spectral line broadening, and Grvs magnitudes, derived from the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS).	Main	NEW	DL3	Spectroscopy	TAP	312,247,580	28 GB
02.06	All-source	crowded_field_source_environment_match	A cross-match table between the individual source lists coming from the Crowded Field and Source Environment analysis pipelines.	Main	NEW	DL3	CrossMatch	TAP	2,297,322	27 MB
03.01	Astrometry	epoch_astrometry	Time series of astrometric data, i.e. individual astrometric measurements for all sources treated in the main astrometric processing.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Astrometry	DataLink	129,625,750,708	62 TB
03.02	Astrometry	epoch_image	Image data from the Gaia CCDs for all sources treated in the main astrometric processing. These are pre-processed and sky-projected individual CCD sample values.	Epoch	NEW	DL1	Image	DataLink	129,754,155,338	113 TB
04.01	Astrophysical parameters	ap_chem	Abundances of chemical elements of stars derived from mean RVS spectra by the General Stellar Parametrizer - Spectrometry (GSP-Spec) module.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	35,825,564	1.6 GB
04.02	Astrophysical parameters	ap_class	Classification probabilities and astrophysical parameters of sources derived by Discrete Source Classification (DSC), Outlier Analysis (OA), and Unsupervised Classification Analysis (UCA).	Main		DL4	Classification	TAP	1,791,382,242	105 GB
04.03	Astrophysical parameters	ap_class_ir	Classification probabilities and parameters of sources derived by Discrete Source Classification (DSC) using Gaia data and external infrared photometry.	Main	NEW	DL4	Classification	TAP	533,490,385	30 GB
04.04	Astrophysical parameters	ap_emission	Astrophysical properties of emission-line or active stars derived with the Extended Stellar Parametrizer Cool Stars (ESP-CS) and the Extended Stellar Parametrizer Emission-Line Stars (ESP-ELS) modules.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	42,249,078	4.5 GB
04.05	Astrophysical parameters	ap_hot	Astrophysical parameters of hot stars derived with Extended Stellar Parametrizer - Hot star (ESP-HS) module.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	13,045,699	1.1 GB
04.06	Astrophysical parameters	ap_rvs	Astrophysical parameters of stars derived from mean Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) spectra with General Stellar Parametrizer - Spectrometry (GSP-Spec) and Final Luminosity, Age, and Mass Estimator (FLAME) modules.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	35,825,564	9.8 GB
04.07	Astrophysical parameters	ap_rvs_epoch	Astrophysical parameters, and in some cases the abundances, derived from the epoch Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) spectra for RRLyrae and Cepheids with the General Stellar Parametrizer - Spectrometry (GSP-Spec) module.	Epoch	NEW	DL4	Parameters	TAP	363,457	165 MB
04.08	Astrophysical parameters	ap_xp	Astrophysical parameters from mean BP/RP spectra derived with the Extended Stellar Parametrizer Ultra Cool Dwarfs (ESP-UCD), Extended Stellar Parametrizer Emission-Line Stars (ESP-ELS) , Generalised Stellar Parametrizer PHOTometry (GSP-Phot) and Final Luminosity, Age, and Mass Estimator (FLAME) modules.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	999,939,280	298 GB
04.09	Astrophysical parameters	ap_xp_epoch	Astrophysical parameters derived from the epoch RP spectra with Extended Stellar Parametrizer Ultra Cool Dwarfs (ESP-UCD) module.	Epoch	NEW	DL4	Parameters	TAP	355,690	28 MB
04.10	Astrophysical parameters	ap_xp_supp	Astrophysical parameters from mean BP/RP spectra derived with Generalised Stellar Parametrizer PHOTometry (GSP-Phot). Each source has been analysed with three different stellar libraries and all of these results are published in this table.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	998,978,501	643 GB
04.11	Astrophysical parameters	interstellar_medium_params	Diffuse Interstellar Band (DIB) parameters derived from stacked spectra with DIB-Spec module; binned in galactic latitude, longitude, and distance.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	1,272,138	167 MB
04.12	Astrophysical parameters	interstellar_medium_spectra	Stacked Interstellar Medium Spectra as derived with DIB-Spec module; binned in galactic latitude, longitude, and distance.	Main		DL4	Spectra	TAP	408,356,298	2.9 GB
04.13	Astrophysical parameters	mcmc_samples_gsp_phot	Parameter distributions from Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) chain of the Generalised Stellar Parametrizer PHOTometry (GSP-Phot) module.	Main		DL4	Parameters	DataLink	998,981,564	9.3 TB
04.14	Astrophysical parameters	oa_neuron_information	Each entry corresponds to parameters estimated for one particular neuron of the Self-Organised Map using the Outlier Analysis (OA) module.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	900	258 kB
04.15	Astrophysical parameters	oa_neuron_xp_spectra	Prototype BP/RP spectrum for a particular neuron given in the oa_neuron_information table.	Main		DL3	Spectra	TAP	78,300	449 kB
04.16	Astrophysical parameters	total_galactic_extinction_map	Total Galactic Extinction (TGE) map for the monochromatic extinction at 542.9 nm.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	67,092,480	306 MB
04.17	Astrophysical parameters	total_galactic_extinction_map_opt	This table provides an optimum version of the Total Galactic Extinction map for the monochromatic extinction at 542.9 nm, at a single HEALPix level 9.	Main		DL4	Parameters	TAP	3,145,728	25 MB
04.18	Astrophysical parameters	training_sources_dsc	Sources used in training the Apsis/DSC (Discrete Source Classifier) module.	Main	NEW	DL3	Parameters	TAP	1,173,307	7.9 MB
04.19	Astrophysical parameters	training_sources_uca_oa	Reference sources used by the UCA and OA modules as part of the Apsis processing chain.	Main	NEW	DL3	Parameters	TAP	8,753,009	58 MB
04.20	Astrophysical parameters	uca_neuron_information	Each entry corresponds to parameters estimated for one particular neuron of the Self-Organised Map using the UCA module.	Main	NEW	DL4	Parameters	TAP	581	76 kB
04.21	Astrophysical parameters	uca_neuron_xp_spectra	Prototype BP/RP spectrum for a particular neuron given in the uca_neuron_information table.	Main	NEW	DL3	Spectra	TAP	50,547	202 kB
05.01	Auxiliary	bam_observation	Data from the Basic-Angle Monitor (BAM), i.e. from the on-board metrology interferometer designed to continually measure the variations of the effective angle between the viewing directions of the two Gaia fields of view.	Auxiliary	NEW	DL1	Image	TAP	14,611,182	2.3 TB
05.02	Auxiliary	commanded_scan_law	Representation of the Gaia scanning law over the 66 month time period covered by the Gaia Data Release 4 including the Ecliptic Pole Scanning at the beginning of the mission.	Auxiliary			General	TAP	17,327,341	985 MB
05.03	Auxiliary	gaia_gap	This table lists all time intervals excluded from the astrometric, photometric and/or spectroscopic data processing of the Gaia observations. Gaps are time periods where such observations have been ignored in the various processing pipelines.	Auxiliary	NEW in Archive		General	TAP	30,162	346 kB
05.04	Auxiliary	gbot_observation	Ground-based position measurements of the Gaia satellite taken by the Ground-Based Optical Tracking (GBOT) project for the purpose of Gaia orbit reconstruction.	Auxiliary	NEW		General	TAP	6,226	219 kB
05.05	Auxiliary	onboard_detection_af_xp	Object logs for the astrometric field and the BP and RP fields, corresponding to on-board detections in the sky mapper. This table contains low-precision coordinates that correspond to the assigned window centre.	Epoch	NEW	DL1	Astrometry	TAP	154,760,472,468	1.9 TB
05.06	Auxiliary	onboard_detection_rvs	Object logs for the radial velocity spectrometer (RVS) field, corresponding to on-board detections in the sky mapper. This table contains low-precision coordinates that correspond to the assigned window centre.	Epoch	NEW	DL1	Astrometry	TAP	10,069,932,438	141 GB
06.01	Bright stars	bright_source_astrometry	Astrometric parameters of 49 of the 51 brightest stellar sources in the sky, obtained using a special observation mode and special data processing methods.	Main	NEW	DL3	Astrometry	TAP	49	55 kB
06.02	Bright stars	bright_source_epoch_astrometry	Time series of astrometric data, i.e. the individual astrometric measurements for the same 49 among the 51 brightest stars for which the astrometric parameters are presented in the bright_source_astrometry table.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Astrometry	DataLink	663	410 kB
07.01	Cross match	catwise2020_best_neighbour	List of matched Gaia DR4 objects with their best neighbour in the external catalogue.	Cross match	NEW		CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.02	Cross match	catwise2020_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Gaia DR4 object.	Cross match	NEW		CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.03	Cross match	dr3_neighbourhood	Users wishing to look up the DR4 record for an astrophysical source identified in E/DR3 must not simply extract the record from DR4 having the same source identifier. Within the neighbourhood of a given DR4 source there may be none, one or (rarely) several possible counterparts in E/DR3 sources indicated by rows in this table.	Cross match	NEW		CrossMatch	TAP	2,448,832,159	29 GB
07.04	Cross match	gaia_eso_survey_best_neighbour	List of matched external catalogue objects with their best neighbour in Gaia DR4.	Cross match	NEW		CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.05	Cross match	gaia_eso_survey_join	Convenience table to be used to join Gaia-ESO Survey catalogue with the cross-match results.	Cross match	NEW		CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.06	Cross match	gaia_eso_survey_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Gaia-ESO Survey object.	Cross match	NEW		CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.07	Cross match	hipparcos2_best_neighbour	List of matched external catalogue objects with their best neighbour in Gaia DR4.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.08	Cross match	hipparcos2_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Hipparcos2 object.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.09	Cross match	panstarrs1_best_neighbour	List of matched Gaia objects with their best neighbour in the external catalogue.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.10	Cross match	panstarrs1_join	Convenience table to be used to join Pan-STARRS1 DR1.1 catalogue with the cross-match results.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.11	Cross match	panstarrs1_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Gaia DR4 object.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.12	Cross match	ravedr6_best_neighbour	List of matched external catalogue objects with their best neighbour in Gaia DR4.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.13	Cross match	ravedr6_join	Convenience table to be used to join RAVE DR6 catalogue with the cross-match results.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.14	Cross match	ravedr6_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched RAVE DR6 object.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.15	Cross match	sdssdr13_best_neighbour	List of matched Gaia DR4 objects with their best neighbour in the external catalogue.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.16	Cross match	sdssdr13_join	Convenience table to be used to join SDSS DR13 catalogue with the cross-match results.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.17	Cross match	sdssdr13_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Gaia DR4 object.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.18	Cross match	skymapperdr2_best_neighbour	List of matched Gaia DR4 objects with their best neighbour in the external catalogue.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.19	Cross match	skymapperdr2_join	Convenience table to be used to join the SkyMapper DR2 catalogue with the cross-match results.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.20	Cross match	skymapperdr2_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Gaia DR4 object.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.21	Cross match	tmass_psc_xsc_best_neighbour	List of matched Gaia DR4 objects with their best neighbour in the external catalogue.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.22	Cross match	tmass_psc_xsc_join	Convenience table to be used to join 2MASS PSC+XSC catalogue with the cross-match results.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.23	Cross match	tmass_psc_xsc_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Gaia DR4 object.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.24	Cross match	tycho2tdsc_merge_best_neighbour	List of matched external catalogue object with their best neighbour in Gaia DR4.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
07.25	Cross match	tycho2tdsc_merge_neighbourhood	All good neighbours for each matched Tycho2tdscMerge object.	Cross match			CrossMatch	TAP	tbd	tbd
08.01	Crowded fields	crowded_field_coverage_map	Coverage maps of Crowded Fields. For each HEALPix cell covering the crowded field region the number of scans is given.	Auxiliary	NEW	DL1	Image	TAP	67,851	357 kB
08.02	Crowded fields	crowded_field_epoch_astrometry	Time series of astrometric data, i.e. the individual astrometric measurements for the sources treated in the special crowded-field processing.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Astrometry	DataLink	662,551,394	46 GB
08.03	Crowded fields	crowded_field_epoch_photometry	Time series of photometric data, i.e. the individual photometric measurements for the sources treated in the special crowded-field processing.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Photometry	DataLink	662,551,394	15 GB
08.04	Crowded fields	crowded_field_image	Electronically de-biased and astrometrically calibrated images of crowded-fields published as FITS files.	Image	NEW	DL1	Image	DataLink	12,314	584 GB
08.05	Crowded fields	crowded_field_image_summary	Metadata for electronically de-biased and astrometrically calibrated crowded field images published as FITS files.	Main	NEW	DL1	Image	TAP	12,314	3.0 MB
08.06	Crowded fields	crowded_field_source	Sources created with the crowded-field image analysis pipeline.	Main		DL3	General	TAP	19,719,087	5.0 GB
09.01	Extra-galactic	galaxy_candidates	Parameters derived from various modules dedicated to the classification and characterisation of sources considered as galaxy candidates.	Galaxies		DL3	Parameters	TAP	8,120,093	1.1 GB
09.02	Extra-galactic	galaxy_morphology_input_list	List of input catalogues used to select any given source for which morphological analysis parameters are provided in the galaxy_candidates table.	Galaxies		DL3	Classification	TAP	6,622,629	58 MB
09.03	Extra-galactic	grav_lens_combination	Information relevant at the level of a gravitational lens multiplet system analysed around lensed sources.	Gravitational lensing		DL3	Parameters	TAP	4,016,822	144 MB
09.04	Extra-galactic	grav_lens_component	Potential gravitational lens components (including the quasars).	Gravitational lensing		DL3	Classification	TAP	7,286,992	721 MB
09.05	Extra-galactic	grav_lens_input_list	List of input catalogues used to select any given source analysed by the Gravitational Lens module.	Gravitational lensing		DL3	Classification	TAP	4,583,376	56 MB
09.06	Extra-galactic	grav_lens_observation	Observations used for gravitational lens search.	Gravitational lensing		DL2	Classification	TAP	329,166,843	20 GB
09.07	Extra-galactic	grav_lens_outlier	Individual observations that have been discarded as outliers from the analysis of the gravitational lenses.	Gravitational lensing		DL3	Classification	TAP	35,712,643	2.1 GB
09.08	Extra-galactic	grav_lens_redshift	Quasar and galaxy redshifts associated with an input list of quasars and lens components given in the corresponding gravitational lens component table.	Gravitational lensing	NEW	DL3	Classification	TAP	6,109,832	551 MB
09.09	Extra-galactic	grav_lens_xp_mean_spectrum	Internally-calibrated mean BP/RP spectra of a given gravitational lens component in continuous representation.	Gravitational lensing	NEW	DL3	Spectra	DataLink	3,016,406	50 GB
09.10	Extra-galactic	qso_candidates	Parameters derived from various modules dedicated to the classification and characterisation of sources considered as QSO candidates.	Quasar		DL3	Parameters	TAP	5,370,820	614 MB
09.11	Extra-galactic	qso_morphology_input_list	List of input catalogues used to select those sources for which morphological analysis was performed in the QSO candidates table.	Quasar		DL3	Classification	TAP	4,580,317	53 MB
10.01	Non-single stars	nss_acceleration_astro	Non-single-star (NSS) astrometric solution models for sources having a non-linear proper motion which is compatible with an acceleration solution.	Non-single stars		DL3	Astrometry	TAP	3,365,947	1.2 GB
10.02	Non-single stars	nss_epoch_flags	Flags indicative of whether certain observations were used or not for the non-single stars processing. It can be used in combination with the epoch tables containing the astrometric, photometric or radial velocity data themselves.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	General	DataLink	2,677,248,510	20 GB
10.03	Non-single stars	nss_masses	Masses derived from the non-single stars (NSS) solutions with orbital parameters.	Non-single stars	NEW in Archive	DL4	Parameters	TAP	4,323,300	171 MB
10.04	Non-single stars	nss_multiple_orbits	Non-single-star orbital models for sources compatible with solutions having more than two bodies.	Non-single stars	NEW	DL3	Astrometry	TAP	16,681	128 MB
10.05	Non-single stars	nss_multiplicity	Source may be involved in more than one resolved pair. This table list all pairs involving a given source.	Non-single stars	NEW	DL3	Astrometry	TAP	229,083,823	2.3 GB
10.06	Non-single stars	nss_non_linear_spectro	Non-single-star orbital models for spectroscopic binaries compatible with a trend.	Non-single stars		DL3	Spectroscopy	TAP	79,653	66 MB
10.07	Non-single stars	nss_resolved_pair	Non-single-star astrometric models for resolved pairs of sources being physically bound (in contrast with chance alignment pairs).	Non-single stars	NEW	DL3	Astrometry	TAP	22,829,105	8.4 GB
10.08	Non-single stars	nss_two_body_orbit	Non-single-star orbital solution parameters for sources compatible with an orbital two-body solution. This covers astrometric binaries, spectroscopic binaries, eclipsing binaries and certain combinations thereof.	Non-single stars		DL3	Astrometry	TAP	5,901,111	2.7 GB
10.09	Non-single stars	nss_vim_fl	Non-single-star solution parameters for sources compatible with a Variability-Induced Mover (VIM) solution.	Non-single stars		DL3	Astrometry	TAP	3,775	38 MB
10.10	Non-single stars	optical_pair	Optical Pairs / chance alignment of spatially close sources.	Main	NEW	DL3	Astrometry	TAP	10,487,303	207 MB
11.01	Photometry	epoch_photometry	Time series of photometric data aggregated per FOV-transit, i.e. the light curve at FoV level for a given source in the G, BP and RP bands.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Photometry	DataLink	121,845,163,512	7.2 TB
11.02	Photometry	epoch_photometry_ccd	Time series of photometric data at CCD-transit level, i.e. the light curve at FoV level for a given source in the G band.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Photometry	DataLink	121,845,163,512	23 TB
11.03	Photometry	synthetic_photometry_gspc	Synthetic photometry generated from the Gaia BP/RP mean spectra and standardised using wide and reliable sets of external standard stars. Provided in a selection of photometric systems.	Main		DL4	Photometry	TAP	566,546,415	58 GB
12.01	Reference frame	frame_rotator_source	Sources used to compute the Gaia reference frame.	Main		DL3	Reference Frame	TAP	1,883,052	12 MB
12.02	Reference frame	gaia_crf4	Gaia Celestial Reference Frame (Gaia-CRF4) table.	Main	NEW	DL3	Astrometry	TAP	4,196,349	54 MB
12.03	Reference frame	gaia_crf4_external_names	Full cross-match information for the Gaia Celestial Reference Frame (Gaia-CRF4) sources. The Gaia-CRF4 sources were selected from the cross-matches with external QSO catalogues.	Main		DL3	CrossMatch	TAP	25,920,818	155 MB
13.01	Science alerts	alerts_mixedin_sourceids	List of identifiers for mixed-in sources for Gaia Photometric Science Alerts, where transits from the primary source are mixed with other sources in the catalogue.	Main		DL3	Classification	TAP	150	16 kB
13.02	Science alerts	science_alerts	Gaia Photometric Science Alerts triggered in the time span covered by DR4, i.e. 25-07-2014 to 20-01-2020.	Main		DL3	Classification	TAP	10,856	224 kB
13.03	Science alerts	sso_alerts	Transit IDs of observations that have have been associated with published asteroid alerts.	Main		DL3	Classification	TAP	22,476	207 kB
14.01	Simulation	gaia_source_simulation	Gaia Simulations - Sources realised according to the Gaia Object Generator (GOG) simulation. Observed attributes are given with simulated observational uncertainties.	Simulations			Simulations	TAP	1,483,578,556	152 GB
14.02	Simulation	gum_galaxy	Gaia Simulations (GUM Galaxies). Table of simulated unresolved galaxies according to the Gaia Universe Model Simulation (GUMS).	Simulations	NEW		Simulations	TAP	112,938,851	9.7 GB
14.03	Simulation	gum_mw	Gaia Simulations (GUM Milky Way). Table of simulated galactic stars according to the Gaia Universe Model Simulation (GUMS).	Simulations			Simulations	TAP	3,946,617,210	363 GB
14.04	Simulation	gum_qso	Gaia Simulations (GUM QSO). Table of simulated QSOs according to the Gaia Universe Model Simulation (GUMS).	Simulations	NEW		Simulations	TAP	1,641,164	138 MB
14.05	Simulation	gum_sn	Gaia Simulations (GUM Supernovae). Table of simulated supernovae according to the Gaia Universe Model Simulation (GUMS).	Simulations	NEW		Simulations	TAP	4,862	34 MB
15.01	Solar system	sso_observation	Solar System objects (SSO) - observations. Each table row contains data obtained during the transit of the source on a single CCD, during a single transit. The corresponding epoch is provided.	Epoch		DL2	General	TAP	60,542,356	13 GB
15.02	Solar system	sso_reflectance_spectrum	Solar system objects (SSO) - Mean BP/RP reflectance spectra of asteroids computed as the ratio between the asteroid flux and an averaged solar analogue flux.	Solar System		DL3	Spectra	TAP	436,551	13 MB
15.03	Solar system	sso_source	Solar system objects (SSO) - sources. Data related to Solar System objects observed by Gaia. Quantities are related to single objects.	Solar System		DL3	Parameters	TAP	436,551	145 MB
15.04	Solar system	sso_xp_epoch_spectrum	Solar system objects (SSO) - Epoch BP and RP spectra collected at transit level for SSO sources.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Spectra	DataLink	8,656,146	6.9 GB
16.01	Source environment	gaia_source_environment	Astrometry, photometry, and related information for sources detected by the SEAPipe processing in the surrounding of sources in the main Gaia source catalogue.	Main	NEW	DL3	General	TAP	217,242,690	26 GB
16.02	Source environment	residual_image	Reconstructed 2-dimensional image centred on the source given by the source identifier. The 2D image is reconstructed from the window data from multiple transits. The central source has been removed from the image to allow the detection of other features.	Main	NEW	DL3	Image	DataLink	7,036,695	346 GB
17.01	Spectroscopy	rvs_epoch_parameters_double	FOV-transit-level information for the radial velocity, spectral line broadening, and Grvs magnitudes for double-lined transits.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Spectroscopy	DataLink	787,312	128 MB
17.02	Spectroscopy	rvs_epoch_parameters_single	FOV-transit-level information for radial velocity, spectral line broadening, and Grvs magnitudes for single-lined transits.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Spectroscopy	DataLink	6,910,423,894	323 GB
17.03	Spectroscopy	rvs_epoch_spectrum	RVS spectra combined at the FOV-transit level. The spectra are in the solar barycentric frame and normalized.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Spectra	DataLink	6,910,785,949	49 TB
17.04	Spectroscopy	rvs_mean_spectrum	RVS mean sampled spectra. The spectra are in the rest frame and are normalised.	Main		DL3	Spectra	DataLink	250,022,127	1.8 TB
17.05	Spectroscopy	rvs_transit_description	CCD level information for RVS transits.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Spectra	TAP	9,020,054,046	175 GB
17.06	Spectroscopy	rvs_two_body_orbit	Spectroscopic binary solutions derived from the analysis performed by the Line Integral Analysis (LIA) modules, using both the astrometric orbital solutions and the cross-correlation functions between RVS epoch spectra and synthetic spectral templates.	Non-single stars	NEW	DL3	Spectroscopy	TAP	638,966	99 MB
17.07	Spectroscopy	xp_continuous_mean_spectrum	Mean BP and RP spectra based on the continuous representation in basis functions.	Main		DL3	Spectra	DataLink	1,824,229,813	22 TB
17.08	Spectroscopy	xp_epoch_crowding	Information on both treated and untreated crowding for both BP and RP CCDs for a FoV transit.	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Photometry	DataLink	62,849,341,218	1.1 TB
17.09	Spectroscopy	xp_epoch_spectrum	Epoch BP and RP spectra collected at transit level (with the exception of Solar System Objects (SSO) sources).	Epoch	NEW	DL2	Spectra	DataLink	121,070,897,406	119 TB
17.10	Spectroscopy	xp_summary	Auxiliary information about the mean BP/RP spectrum of a given source.	Main	NEW	DL3	Photometry	TAP	1,824,229,813	55 GB
18.01	Variability	vari_agn	Active galactic nuclei.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	1,966,371	196 MB
18.02	Variability	vari_cepheid	Cepheids.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	19,339	128 MB
18.03	Variability	vari_classifier_feature	Environment and period-search derived features used by the supervised variability classifiers.	Main	NEW		Variability	TAP	277,756,221	39 GB
18.04	Variability	vari_classifier_result	Variability classification results of all classifiers.	Main		DL4	Classification	TAP	315,099,329	35 GB
18.05	Variability	vari_compact_companion	Compact companion candidates.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	6,224	33 MB
18.06	Variability	vari_eclipsing_binary	Eclipsing binaries resulting from variability analysis.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	2,392,500	419 MB
18.07	Variability	vari_epoch_flags	Flags indicative of whether certain observations were used or not for the variable stars processing VariPipe. It can be used in combination with the epoch tables containing the astrometric, photometric or radial velocity data themselves.	Main	NEW	DL2	Variability	DataLink	22,216,717,970	158 GB
18.08	Variability	vari_flaring_star	Flaring star.	Main	NEW	DL4	Variability	TAP	89,355	110 MB
18.09	Variability	vari_gvd_classifier_feature	Features used by the General Variability Detection (GVD) classifiers.	Main	NEW		Variability	TAP	403,061,676	28 GB
18.10	Variability	vari_long_period_variable	Long Period Variable stars.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	4,437,454	459 MB
18.11	Variability	vari_microlensing	Microlensing events.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	1,360	28 MB
18.12	Variability	vari_planetary_transit	Planetary transit candidate events.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	1,007	8.6 MB
18.13	Variability	vari_pms_oscillator	Pre-main-sequence oscillators.	Main	NEW	DL4	Variability	TAP	323	1.9 MB
18.14	Variability	vari_rad_vel_statistics	Statistical parameters of radial velocity time series.	Main	NEW	DL3	Variability	TAP	15,249,549	1.2 GB
18.15	Variability	vari_rotation_modulation	Solar-like stars with rotational modulation.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	18,237,848	29 GB
18.16	Variability	vari_rrlyrae	RR Lyrae stars.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	246,380	205 MB
18.17	Variability	vari_short_timescale	Short-timescale variables.	Main		DL4	Variability	TAP	8,386,659	242 MB
18.18	Variability	vari_summary	Information on where a source can be found in the different Variability tables and statistical parameters of timeseries, using only transits not rejected.	Main		DL3	Variability	TAP	403,061,676	137 GB
18.19	Variability	vari_unsupervised	Various features computed from the unsupervised classification and clustering from the variability analysis.	Main	NEW	DL4	Classification	TAP	101,836,005	16 GB
18.20	Variability	vari_yso	Young stellar objects.	Main	NEW	DL4	Variability	TAP	218,341	35 MB

Gaia DR4 pre-release

On 29 June the astrometric time series for a small sample of data was released to help prepare for Gaia's data release 4. Find more details here.

Background of the data

Gaia DR4 data is based on data collected between 25 July 2014 (10:30 UTC) and 20 January 2020 (22:00 UTC) spanning a period of 66 months of data collection that includes the complete nominal mission. As a comparison, Gaia DR3 was based on 34 months of data, Gaia DR2 was based on 22 months of data, and Gaia DR1 was based on observations collected in the first 14 months of Gaia's routine operational phase.

The reference epoch for Gaia DR4 is J2017.5. Remember that the reference epoch is different for each Gaia data release, and that the reference epoch for Gaia DR3 was J2016.0, for Gaia DR2 was J2015.5, and for Gaia DR1 was J2015.0.

Positions and proper motions are referred to the ICRS, to which the optical reference frame defined by Gaia DR4 (Gaia-CRF4) is aligned. The time coordinate for Gaia DR4 results is the barycentric coordinate time (TCB).

Gaia Source Identifiers

Sources in the Gaia Catalogue are all identified through the Gaia Source Identifier, i.e., the source_id field in the various tables in the Gaia Archive. The construction of the source identifiers is explained in the archive documentation (for Gaia DR1, see the data model section). In particular, the source_id number contains rough information about the source position on the sky.

As explained in previous announcements, there are various reasons why the identifier of a specific source may change or disappear when going from the Gaia DR1 to the Gaia DR2 source list and on to the Gaia DR3 and Gaia DR4 source lists. Users of Gaia data should thus be aware that the source list for Gaia DR4 should be treated as independent from Gaia DR3, Gaia DR2, and from Gaia DR1. With each new Gaia data release, the source list is becoming progressively more stable.

The Gaia source names ('designations') for Gaia DR4 are all constructed as follows:

Gaia DR4 yyy....yy

Accessing the data

The Gaia ESA Archive will be the main point of access to the Gaia DR4 data, but the data (or a subset thereof) will also be served from our partner data centres (CDS, ASDC, ARI, AIP and Flatiron). Data can be extracted from the Gaia Archive by performing ADQL queries and downloading the corresponding results tables.

The total size will be about 400 TB, of which a large fraction is the level-2 (epoch) data.

Auxiliary data

With this data release, also auxiliary data such as an event log, training sets for certain pipelines, passbands, ... and much more are published. These are summarised on the auxiliary data page, which will become public with the data release.

Software tools

Some code and tools that were developed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium will be made available on the data release day. Some tools are published already now, for use with the Gaia DR4 pre-release, and can be found from the Gaia DR4 software tools page.

Passbands

Gaia DR4 photometric passbands will be published to document how the Gaia DR4 magnitudes are computed, and to allow reproducing the analysis of the data.

Documentation

Data release documentation is provided along with each data release in the form of a downloadable PDF and a webpage, plus a set of Data Release papers describing the processing and performance of the catalogue. Please visit the Gaia ESA Archive support pages to access Gaia documentation, and make sure to go through all relevant information given from the documentation overview page.

Known issues with Gaia Data Release 4

A list of issues with the data or info given along with the data will be provided. In case you find an issue with the data yourself, please contact the Gaia Helpdesk to let us know.

Data model

The Gaia DR4 data model describes all tables together with the names and contents of the columns inside each table. This information will become available from the Gaia ESA Archive along with the data release documentation.

A draft version of the Gaia DR4 data model is available here (download from this link)

Data Release papers

Along with the Gaia DR4 data release documentation, several data processing papers will be published describing the specifics of the data processing and validation performed by the different coordination units in the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). There will also be some papers on the performance verification of Gaia, providing basic demonstrations of the scientific potential of the Gaia DR4 catalogue. Some pre-release processing papers are already available.